What is
“in” and what is “out?” Friendships throughout the school
year often are made based on what “school” a child attends—as well as what the child wears or carries to
school. Not having any children in school, and not being up on the “trends,” I spoke with the parents of some
teenagers in our church. (As the TV show, “Dragnet” used to say,
“Their names will not be mentioned in order to protect the innocent.”) I
asked these parents, “what’s in and what’s out” in school trends. According
to these parents, “silly bands” are “in.” These “silly
bands” are rubber bands that retain a specific shape (such as a letter in the alphabet), even after countless times
of wearing them.
Then there are the “in-clothes.” “Skinny
jeans” are “in,” and loose fitting jeans are “out.” However,
“skinny jeans’ will be “in,” only through the winter. For in the spring of 2011, the “boot cut” and “bell-bottom” jeans will be “in,” and the
“skinny jeans” will be out. Woe to any child that foolishly wears
“skinny jeans” next spring to classes. We can laugh at these trends, but at the same time, there is something
far more significant going on here. For, “what’s in” and “what’s
out”—translates to “who’s in” and “who’s out.”
Lest you think that you have left all those concerns with your passing
years, just remember what it was like having to get a “pass” in order to drive through the security gate of a
gated-community.
Being in the “in-crowd” likewise was important in Jesus’ day. In that day, there was a tightly defined and rigid social and economic “pecking
order” in peoples’ lives. Most people were born into a certain
social and economic rung on the ladder, and they lived within that social and economic rung all their lives. There were few opportunities to move up the ladder.
This “pecking order” further was played out in peoples’ faith. Many Jews of Jesus’ time thought a lot about the end of the world. They imagined the end of the world as a giant “banquet feast.” In addition, they had definite ideas of who were going to be the “insiders” and “outsiders”
at that banquet feast. Further, they speculated about where they might be in
the heavenly “pecking order,” in comparison to others.
To understand this passage, we have to understand that the logistics of that great heavenly
banquet was to be far different from a “dinner” that we might have. First,
the dining room table was a low solid block of wood—shaped in the form of a “U.” Around it were arranged low couches on which the guests reclined to eat. At
the center-top of that U-shaped table, the host sat. The first place of honor
at that table was to the host’s right, the second place to the host’s left, the third place was the second to
the host’s right, the fourth place to the host’s left, and so forth all about the table. Further, the invitations did not give the exact time of the
party. Therefore, guests would arrive at different time during the day.
Those who were eager to be on time would usually arrive early. They then would select their places at the table. Yet for a guest to misjudge one’s social position,
relative to the other guests at the table, that was a serious matter and had embarrassing consequences. Those persons of advanced age who only could attend for a brief time, or those with greater prestige within
the community who liked to “make an entrance”—they frequently would arrive later as the meal was being served.
If one of the guests with less prestige had taken their place at the table, the
host would ask that person to move in order to give seat to the guest of greater prestige. To
complicate matters, the meal already would have begun, and the intermediate places already had been taken. The humiliated guest therefore would need to take the only seats left—the seats furthest down the
table, and farthest away from the host.
Dr. Luke tells us that one of the Pharisees had invited Jesus to a meal. The Pharisees
had been very critical of Jesus, and yet Jesus was willing to risk an incident in order to accept the Pharisee’s hospitality.
Others were watching to see what he would do. Jesus was very observant. He noticed how some guests arrived early at the home, and they took the best couches
near the host. They assumed that they were the more prestigious guests at the
table. However, some of these guests had to give up the places they had taken, to more prestigious guests. As Jesus drew most of his examples from everyday life, this
banquet table was a perfect place to explain God’s priorities in life.
Jesus therefore advised those at the table, that if someone invited them to a wedding
banquet, they should take the less prestigious seats at the table—that way they would not be embarrassed by being asked
to move to a lesser prestigious place. Further, the host might just invite them
to sit in a place of greater prestige. In such instructions, Jesus was drawing
on the teaching in Proverbs 25, which Janice read earlier this morning.
In his remarks, Jesus was doing far more than expounding on the 1st century
version of social etiquette. Further, he was not telling his disciples to take
the lower seat as a way of “making a show,” when their host might invite them to a better seat. His concern was
not social niceties or social advancement. His concern was the Kingdom of God.
As such, Jesus was telling them that, in God’s rule, God reverses human expectations—that
“those who exalt themselves will be humbled,
and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This humility was not a fake humility that sought to manipulate others. Rather,
this humility simply was a grateful attitude of having been invited to the party.
Jesus had learned about God’s reversal of the world’s expectations at his
mother’s knee. For Mary, prior to his birth, had sung about God’s reversal of expectations, “…he has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts
of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted
up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty...” (Luke 1: 52-53)
Later during that meal, Jesus recognized that the host, like many hosts in his time,
was using the dinner as a means of gaining social and political power over others at the table. There were “strings attached” to the dinner invitation. The
host expected the others to reciprocate in some manner.
You may remember that the Dead Sea Scrolls were written in the 1st century—the
time that Jesus lived. A strict religious group called the Essenes established
a wilderness community at Qumran near the Dead Sea. They wrote down on scrolls rules for
community life, as well as copied a number of the Old Testament scriptures. In
one of the Dead Sea Scrolls, archeologists have found scrolls that defined God’s guest list to the heavenly banquet.
The guest list was very exclusive, “all
the wise men of the congregation, the learned and intelligent, men who knew what is perfect and men of ability...the men of
renown.” The scroll also defined who would not be included on the guest
list: “No man smitten in his flesh,
or paralyzed in his feet or hands, or lame, or blind, or dumb, or smitten in flesh with a visible blemish; no old or tottery
man unable to stay still in the midst of the congregation; none of those shall come...among the congregation of the men of
renown...” (From the Messianic Rule, Dead Sea
Scrolls) The Essences envisioned that there would be no room at the messianic
banquet for women, children, the handicapped, and those with infirmities. There
only would be room for “men of renown.”
Yet, Jesus had a different guest list. He
said to his host at the meal, “When you
give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your bothers or your relatives, or rich neighbors, in case they
may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet,
invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed...”
In saying this, Jesus was not exchanging one guest list for another. He
was not offering us another list of “who’s in” and “who’s out” in the Kingdom of God. Jesus was doing something far more radical.
Jesus was declaring that God’s graciousness reaches out farther than we
want God’s graciousness to reach out, and God’s graciousness brings into his loving presence those that we might
not want to be included. His guest list is deep and wide.
There is the story about the funeral of Charlemagne. Charlemagne lived
during the late 8th and early 9th century. “He was six feet four inches
tall... He had ...white hair, animated eyes, a powerful nose...a presence ‘always stately and dignified.’ He was temperate in eating and drinking, despised drunkenness, and kept in good health
despite every exposure and hardship.” (EINHARD, the
King's secretary, describing Charlemagne)
He believed that government should be for the benefit of the governed.
He was a reformer who tried to improve his subject’s lives. He set up money standards to encourage commerce and urged better farming methods. His rule led to a revival of art, religion, and culture. His kingdom incorporated much of Western and Central
Europe. Scholars consider him the “Father of modern Europe.” Pope
Leo III even crowned him “Holy Roman Emperor” on Christmas Day, 800 AD.
Following his death, a tremendous funeral procession left his castle for the cathedral at Aix. When the royal casket arrived, with much pomp and circumstance, a local bishop met it, barring the cathedral
door.
"Who
comes?" the Bishop asked, as was the customary question.
"Charlemagne, Lord and King of the Holy Roman
Empire," proclaimed the Emperor's
proud herald.
"Him I know not," the Bishop replied. "Who comes?"
The herald, a bit shaken, replied, "Charles the Great, a good and honest man of the earth."
"Him I know not," the Bishop said again. "Who comes?"
The herald, now completely crushed, responded, "Charles,
a lowly sinner, who begs the gift of Christ," -- to which the Bishop responded, "Enter!
Receive Christ's gift of life!"
We all
are unfit for God’s party in heaven! We all will come with our hats in our hands: Charlemagne, St. Luke, John Calvin,
Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Bishop Tutu, you and me. None of us can ever
claim that we have earned a place at God’s heavenly party—much less, can we claim that we will get one of the
better seats. Yet, in God’s graciousness, he reaches out “deep and
wide;” and though the Holy Sprint brings us in, he sets a place for us at his banquet table, and feeds us. Thanks be to God. Amen!
